The invention relates generally to methods and systems for providing call notification and more particularly to methods and systems for presenting a called party with information regarding an incoming audio and/or video telephone call.
The ability to identify the source of an incoming telephone call allows a called party to have greater control over the handling of calls. Depending upon the sources of incoming calls, the called party may immediately answer time-sensitive calls, allow other calls to be transferred to a voicemail system, and leave calls from solicitors unanswered.
Services for identifying numbers or individuals are available from telecommunications providers. One technique is to use Automatic Number Identification (ANI), which passes the telephone number of a calling party through a public switched telephone network (PSTN). The information may be directly presented to the called party on the display of a display phone or may be used to access a database of previously acquired additional information regarding calling parties.
A similar service is referred to as caller identification, which provides a data stream indicative of the number of the calling telephone and of the name of the calling party. The information can then be presented to a called party using the display of a feature phone or a monitor of a computer having telephone capability.
Another approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,412 to Srinivasan. The patent describes a method and system for providing a telephony subscriber with Internet information related to a caller attempting to contact the subscriber. The Internet information may be the identification of the caller and the addressing data for use in establishing Internet connectivity. The information is provided to the equipment of the called subscriber during the first and second rings of an incoming call. If the called subscriber elects not to answer the call or is not present during the incoming call, the Internet information may be stored for later access. For example, the Internet information may be stored with a voicemail message. The Internet information may be presented to the subscriber in one or more of different formats, e.g., all text, all vocalized in speech, or a combination of text and vocalized speech.
Within a business environment, a person may be designated to forward incoming calls to one or more persons. If a called person is engaged in an on-going call or a video conference, it is difficult to inform the called person of an important incoming call in a nonintrusive manner. Call waiting is one option, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,084 to Chaput et al. A called party who is engaged in a telephone conversation when a second incoming call is received will be notified with a call-waiting tone, typically a 440 Hz tone. The called party then has the option of temporarily suspending the original call to determine whether the second incoming call is sufficiently important to justify terminating the original call.
A less intrusive approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,073 to Smith. A receptionist at a reception unit interviews a calling party to determine an appropriate message to be passed onto a called party. For example, the message may simply be that the incoming call is considered xe2x80x9curgentxe2x80x9d by the calling party. The receptionist uses a keyboard or other input device to pass the message to a display at the location of the called party. The called party can then determine whether to handle the incoming call.
A service that is available with some mobile phone systems is referred to as a xe2x80x9cwhispering.xe2x80x9d If a subscriber to this service is a target of a second incoming call, the subscriber receives a low volume message that alerts the subscriber of the call. The message may include the name of the calling party.
What is needed is a method and system of providing a called party with a nonintrusive notification message having a sufficient content to enable an informed decision regarding handling the call.
A method and system of providing call notification for a user of a telephonic device that is a target of an incoming call includes utilizing automated processing to acquire and visually display information specific to subject matter of interest to a calling individual. The user is then enabled to answer the incoming call, interrupt an on-going call, or forward the information to a mailbox. Preferably, the information is forwarded as a notification message that includes the content-specific information relating to the subject matter of interest.
In one embodiment, the automated method is restricted to providing an enhanced call-waiting capability. Rather than merely receiving an audio notification that an incoming call has been detected, the called party is notified of the subject matter of interest of the caller. The visual display is more informative and less intrusive than conventional call-waiting techniques. However, in the preferred embodiment, the method is not restricted to use in call-waiting circumstances.
A preferred approach to acquiring the content-specific information is to utilize interactive voice recognition (IVR) techniques to interrogate a calling party. An IVR device solicits voice responses that are converted (using speech-to-text conversion techniques) to a proper format for presentation on the display of the telephonic device that is the target of the incoming call. For example, the display may be a liquid crystal display (LCD) of a feature phone or may be a computer monitor of a computer having telephonic capability.
In another embodiment, the content-specific information is generated by the calling party and sent as a text message. For example, the calling party may generate the text message using a computer keyboard and transmit the text message upon connection with telephone switching circuitry at the target telephonic device. The switching circuitry may be contained within the telephonic device or may be a communications server of a private branch exchange (PBX) or local area network (LAN) that supports a number of telephonic devices. When the text message is received from the calling telephonic device, the content-specific message is displayed at the target telephonic device. In an ISDN environment, the text message may be transmitted via the D-channel.
The method may be used in multimedia applications. For example, the target telephonic device may be a video conferencing system. If the called party is engaged in a video conference, the content-specific notification message regarding an incoming call may be visually displayed at the previously engaged video conferencing system without any interruption or disturbance of the on-going conversation.
Preferably, if the call is not connected to the target telephonic device, the content-specific notification message is stored for subsequent retrieval by the called party. This ensures that the called party is made aware of the call, even when the caller does not elect to leave a voice message in a voicemail system.